John Shepard (Earth-2837)
'History' : "It's hard enough fighting a war. But it's worse knowing no matter how hard you try, you can't save them all." :: −'Comander Shepard' Early Years Both of John parents were in the Alliance military. His childhood was spent on ships and stations as they transferred from posting to posting, never staying in one location for more than a few years. Following in his parent's footsteps, he enlisted at the age of eighteen. Early in John military career he found himself facing an overwhelming enemy force. He You risked his own life to save his fellow soldiers and defeat the enemy despite the impossible odds. His bravery and heroism have earned him medals and recognition from the Alliance fleet. John almost single-handedly repelled an attack by batarian slavers on Elysium. After hours of brutal fighting, reinforcements finally arrived and the enemy broke ranks and fled. Because of John's actions, Elysium was saved, and John is regarded throughout the Alliance as a true hero. Saren In 2183, the experimental SSV Normandy is sent to the human colony of Eden Prime to recover an unearthed Prothean beacon. To assist, the Citadel Council, the galaxy's primary governing body, sent Nihlus, a turian Spectre. In addition, Nihlus is also observing veteran soldier Commander Shepard, who is a candidate for becoming a member of Spectre corps, a force of peacekeepers who are above the law and answer directly to the Council. Nihlus, John, and biotic Kaidan Alenko land and meet Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, who reveals that the colony is under attack by the robotic race known as the geth. The geth are led by a rogue turian Spectre named Saren Arterius, who kills Nihlus and activates the Prothean beacon. After the battle ends, John locates the beacon and receives a vision showing scenes of war and death. The Normandy and its crew are summoned by Ambassador Donnel Udina to the Citadel. Unfortunately, John is unable to convince the Citadel Council of Saren's treason without solid evidence. Citadel Security officer Garrus Vakarian and krogan mercenary Urdnot Wrex lead John to a human/quarian mechanic named Emma Summers vas Rayya, who possesses a recording of a conversation between Saren and an asari Matriarch named Benezia. In the recording, the two discuss their victory while also mentioning an artifact called the "Conduit" and the return of a force known as the Reapers. Confronted with this evidence, the Council revokes Saren's Spectre status and makes John the first human Spectre. John is ordered to hunt down Saren with the assistance of Kaidan, Ashley, Garrus, Wrex, Tali, and pilot Josh"Joker" Moreau. Captain Anderson relinquishes command of the Normandy to John, who uses it to follow several leads provided by Anderson and Udina. On Therum, John rescues the archaeologist Dr. Liara T'soni, Matriarch Benezia's daughter. Liara joins John's squad because of her biotic abilities and expertise in the Protheans. On the colony of Feros, John fights off Saren's forces and the Thorian, a sentient plant-like creature allied with Saren that can control individuals. From these agents, John learns that Saren's flagship, Sovereign, also possesses unique mind-control capabilities. On Noveria, John tracks down Matriarch Benezia while fighting off both the geth and the rachni, an insectoid race once thought to be extinct. Benezia is eventually defeated, revealing that she and Saren are being controlled by Sovereign. John is also confronted with a rachni queen, who has been revived by Saren in the hopes of creating an army, and decides to release the queen. After completing these missions, the Council informs John that a salarian infiltration unit has uncovered Saren's main base on Virmire. Upon arrival, John learns that Saren has discovered a cure for the krogan disease known as the genophage. Using it, he plans to breed an army of unstoppable krogan warriors. When Wrex finds out about the cure, he betrays the team but John convinces him to stand down. After this conflict, John assists the salarians in destroying the base by planting a nuclear improvised explosive device in it. John leads the infiltration team, while salarian Captain Kirrahe leads a diversionary attack with the assistance of either Ashley and Kaidan. Inside the base, John is confronted by Sovereign, who reveals itself to be an actual Reaper. Sovereign explains that the Reapers remain outside the Milky Way Galaxy, waiting for organic life to develop, discover the Citadel, and Mass Relays. Upon reaching their peak, all sentient organic lifeforms are harvested by the Reapers. Saren attacks and claims that his allegiance to Sovereign will save organic life forms by demonstrating their "usefulness" to the Reapers. After Saren retreats, John soon receives news that both Ashley and Kaidan have become pinned down. John has only enough time to save one of them, he orders his second in command Crystal Summers to save Ashley while he saves Kaiden. With the information John's squad has gained, Liara is able to pinpoint the Conduit's location on a Prothean world known as Ilos. John follows Saren into the planet and encounters a Prothean computer intelligence named Vigil, which explains the Reapers' methodology. Vigil explains that the Citadel Station is actually a huge mass relay that the Reapers use to invade the galaxy. During the last extinction cycle, a few Protheans survived on Ilos via cryogenic suspension and then re-entered the Citadel via the Conduit, a reverse-engineered miniature mass relay disguised aboard the station as a statue. The scientists managed to sabotage the process that would summon the Reapers. Saren plans to undo this sabotage, and needs the Conduit to get him inside the Citadel. John pursues Saren through the Conduit, arriving at the Citadel as it is under attack by Sovereign and a massive geth force. John fights through and confronts Saren, who has received cybernetic augmentations. John convinces Saren to rebel, Saren commits suicide, thanking John for his freedom. The Citadel Fleet has custody of the Council but is losing the battle. Meanwhile, Joker informs John of a human Systems Alliance fleet massing to counterattack. John orders the Alliance fleet to save the Council and risk heavy casualties, Saren's corpse is reanimated by Sovereign, who then attacks John while simultaneously fighting off the Alliance in ship form. Eventually, humanity prevails, and Saren's corpse is destroyed while Sovereign is dispatched by the Normandy. When John chose to save the Council, the Council will thank humanity and add a human member to their ranks; John is then asked to nominate either Anderson or Udina to this new leadership position. John does so, but then turns away from the proceedings, vowing to end the Reaper threat. Collecters Attack Begins weeks after the events of the Saren. While patrolling for geth resistance, the SSV Normandy is attacked by an unknown starship, forcing the crew to abandon ship. During the evacuation, John tosses Joker into the Normandy's final escape pod before being blasted into space. After a suit breach, John dies of asphyxiation as his body is pulled into the orbit of a nearby planet. John's body is recovered shortly after death by Cerberus, who creates the Lazarus Project with the sole purpose of bringing John back to life. After two years, John awakens on an operating table to ringing alarm bells in a research station under attack by its own security mechs. John teams up with Tom Wagner and medical officer Wilson to reach the escape shuttle. However, Miranda Lawson, who was already waiting at the shuttle bay, shoots Wilson, citing him as the station's betrayer. John is brought to meet with the Illusive Man, who reveals that entire populations of human colonies are disappearing all over the galaxy. Now working for Cerberus, John is sent to investigate a recently-attacked colony where he finds clues about the validity that the Reapers are working by proxy through an insectoid species called the Collectors. The Illusive Man explains that John must construct a team in order to stop the Collectors who reside beyond the Omega-4 Relay, a place from which no ship has ever returned. John is also given command of a new starship, the Normandy SR-2, piloted again by Joker and equipped with an onboard AI named EDI. John recruits four new squad members—Mordin Solus, Garrus Vakarian, Jack, and Grunt—before receiving intel from the Illusive Man that another human colony is under attack. With the help of Mordin's studies on Collector biology, John successfully stops the attack, but a large portion of the colony's population was captured. John continues to recruit squad members, adding Emma Summers vas Normandy, Ryan Krios, and Samara, until the Illusive Man contacts John about a supposedly disabled Collector ship. As John and the squad board the ship, they encounter no Collector resistance and learn that the Collectors were originally Protheans turned into slaves of the Reapers. With EDI's help, John finds out how to bypass the Omega-4 Relay before being ambushed by the Collectors. Although John and the squad manage to escape the Collector ship, relations between John and the Illusive Man are strained due to the Illusive Man's knowledge of the Collector trap. After earning the loyalty of the squad, John visits a derelict Reaper and acquires an IFF transponder necessary for safe travel through the Omega-4 Relay. John acquire a disabled geth that, is activated, and voluntarily joins the squad and is given the name of Legion. The Normandy integrates the IFF into her systems while John and the squad leave the ship in a shuttle. During their absence, the Normandy is attacked and boarded by the Collectors. Only Joker avoids capture and, with EDI's help, is able to get the Normandy away from the ambush. After John's squad returns to the Normandy, the team uses the Omega-4 Relay to get to the Collector base. In the Collectors base, the team rescues any surviving members of the Normandy and fight their way to the central chamber. Squad members may survive or perish depending on their loyalty to John, the upgrades made to the Normandy, and the tasks assigned for specific members to perform in the battle. In the central chamber, John discovers that the Collectors have been constructing a new Reaper made from the genetic material of the abducted humans, but EDI is unsure of its true purpose. John destroys the machine powering the human Reaper and prepares to destroy the Collector base. However, before doing so, the Illusive Man contacts John and gives the order to sterilize the base with a radiation pulse so that its information can be used against the Reapers. After choosing to the base, John destroys the awakened human-reaper larva and escapes the base before the bomb detonates. If no squad members survive, John will be unable to escape the Collector Base and will die. Back on the Normandy, John speaks with the Illusive Man, who condemns John's decision. As John meets in the Normandy's cargo bay with the survivors of the mission, Joker gives the Commander schematics of a Reaper. Humanity now has the full attention of the Reapers, who awaken in dark space and descend upon the galaxy John's Reconstruction After the attack on the Citadel, the Alliance sent John to root out any remaining geth resistance. The Normandy was sent into a sector where three ships were reported to have gone missing in the space of one month. After four days of fruitlessly searching for signs of geth activity, the Normandy is attacked by an unidentified ship, ripping it apart. As the rest of the crew abandoned ship, John went to rescueJoker, who refused the initial evacuation order believing he could still save the ship. Unfortunately, a blast separated them just as John managed to get Joker into an escape pod. The Commander's hardsuit was damaged by explosions and John was flung into space, barely surviving the Normandy's destruction. However, the suit's pressure seals were compromised, and it is apparent that the Commander suffocated to death, coupled with the possibility of the hardsuit burning up on reentry to the planet below. Due to his comprehensive knowledge of galactic events, the Shadow Broker sends Feron, a drell in his service, to obtain John's body. At the same time, Liara T'Soni, who has been looking for John since the attack, is recruited by Cerberus to recover the Commander's body. Feron had originally planned to return the body to the Shadow Broker, until he hears of the Broker's deal with the Collectors. At that point, he defects to Cerberus. Once the Commander's body is retrieved by the duo, they decide to give it to the pro-human organisation Cerberus, rather than turning it over to the Collectors. In an effort undertaken by Cerberus called the Lazarus Project, John is rebuilt and revived, organically and synthetically. Two years later, John awakens in the lab of a Cerberus space station, which is under attack. As John moves through the station, the Commander begins to learn about Project Lazarus and the effort taken to bring John back—with many data caches citing the immense expense of the project and that despite their efforts to make the Commander exactly as before, John may have been inadvertently altered in some way. John has also been referred to as "asleep" for some time by the Illusive Man, leader of Cerberus. All the while, the entire populations of human colonies have been disappearing without a trace during the Commander's incapacitation. Due to the ignorance and political red tape hampering both the Alliance and the Council, Cerberus is the only organization in a position to combat the threat, and John agrees to work with Cerberus to solve this mystery, even though John doesn't trust Cerberus. Meanwhile, rumors of John's apparent survival have mixed concerns. Some would even think that John is undercover investigating the colony disappearances. Facial Scarring Because John was awakened before the Commander's reconstruction was truly complete, John's face bears several glowing scars, that can act as a visible indication of alignment. Immediately after gaining access to the Normandy's Tech Lab, John receives an email from Doctor Chakwas which explains that positive thoughts will heal the scars. It also states that, through an upgrade to the Normandy's Medical Bay, a surgery could insulate the cybernetic implants and accelerate the healing process. Reaper Attack John John having been detained following the events of destroing the colecters base. In the opening moments it is revealed that Earth has recently lost contact with its extra-solar assets and is hastily preparing for the imminent Reaper arrival. The assault comes moments later, and all of Earth's defenses are overwhelmed. John escapes a burning Vancouver on the Normandy with the help of Admiral Anderson and Kaidan Alenko and Ashley Williams and leaves to gather help from other species while Anderson coordinates human resistance on Earth. Before leaving the Sol System, John is ordered to Mars by Admiral Hackett who claims that researchers have uncovered something that may give humanity a chance against the Reapers. There, John battles Cerberus forces and encounters former squad-mate Liara T'Soni, who has discovered plans for a Prothean superweapon that may be capable of defeating the Reapers. Before leaving the facility, John speaks with a now-hostile Illusive Man, who claims he wants to use the Prothean weapon to take control of the Reapers. John pleads for help from the Council, but they are reluctant to oblige due to their own preoccupations and unwilling to bet everything on an untested device. John realizes that the only way to gain other species' assistance will be to help them in their own wars against the Reapers and garner favors, while at the same time gathering war assets to be used against the Reapers in battle. Eventually, Hackett begins construction on the Prothean weapon and dubs it "The Crucible". After rescuing the turian primarch from a battle on one of Palaven's moons (as well as reuniting with squadmate Garrus Vakarian), John convenes a war summit, consisting of himself, the primarch, and representatives for the salarians and the krogan. The primarch promises John turian support for Earth, but only if the krogan agree to help defend Palaven. The summit goes badly at first, with Urdnot Wrex withholding all krogan support until a cure for the genophage can be created. The cure is being developed on the salarian homeworld of Sur'Kesh by former squadmate Mordin Solus and a team of scientists. After a series of battles on Tuchanka, the krogan homeworld, John can either cure the genophage or trick Wrex/Wreav into believing it has been cured. John decides to go forward with the cure, Mordin sacrifices his life at the last moment to counteract a salarian-planned sabotage to it. After gaining the support of the krogan and the turians, John learns that Cerberus has launched an assault on the Citadel. While there, he deduces that human Councilor Udina is behind the attack and kills him, saving the rest of the council. John also encounters Kai Leng, a notorious Cerberus assassin, and prevents him from assassinating the salarian councilor with the help of Ryan Krios. However, Ryan is critically wounded in the struggle, and later dies in hospital with John and his son Kolyat by his side. John then travels to the Far Rim to meet with the admirals of the quarian flotilla. He learns that the quarians have gone to war with the geth, and are attempting to reclaim Rannoch, their homeworld. With Emma Summers vas Normandy, John boards a geth dreadnought that is broadcasting a short-range Reaper code to the geth. He destroys it and finds Legion, who tells John that the geth, losing the war with the quarians, turned to the Reapers in desperation and were greatly enhanced at the cost of their independent thought, while Legion remains independent due to its unusual amount of active programs. With Legion’s help, the geth are pushed back to a Reaper base which is projecting another Reaper signal. The source of the signal is discovered to be an actual Reaper, and with the help of an orbital strike from the quarian fleet, John destroys it. With the Reaper control gone but the superior upgrades still viable, John chooses to allows the geth to upgrade while convincing the quarians that the geth do not want to fight them, making peace between the two and gaining support for Earth from both. John is then informed by the asari councilor of a Prothean artifact on the asari homeworld, Thessia, which may be the key to finishing the Crucible. However, when the Normandy arrives on Thessia, the planet is already under heavy Reaper attack. John must defend Thessia while simultaneously gathering information on the "Catalyst", an essential tool for the Crucible's effectiveness. The artifact the asari councilor referred to is revealed to be a Prothean beacon housing a VI called Vendetta. As it is about to reveal information regarding the Catalyst, Kai Leng arrives and steals the VI program. Deciding to take the fight to the Illusive Man, John follows Leng to the Sanctuary research facility on the human colony Horizon, which Cerberus has been using to research methods of controlling the Reapers. There, John saves Miranda Lawson from her father and Leng in the research facility. Miranda gives John the location of Cerberus headquarters, which, with the help of Admiral Hackett and an Alliance fleet, John assaults, killing Leng in the process but failing to capture the Illusive Man. After reacquiring Vendetta, John learns that the Citadel itself is in fact the Catalyst and that the Illusive Man has now become fully indoctrinated by the Reapers. Because of his indoctrination, the Illusive Man has informed the Reapers of the Citadel's pivotal function in the activation of the Crucible. In response, the Reapers capture the Citadel and move it to a defensible position above Earth, massing their fleets around it. Under Hackett and John's leadership, the combined fleets of all the races of the galaxy launch a massive final attack on the Reaper forces above Earth and on its surface in a last-ditch attempt to retake the Citadel and use it to activate the Crucible. After landing, John assists in an assault on London, at the center of which there is a beam that connects to the orbiting Citadel. Reunited with Anderson, John eventually begins the final push to the Citadel beam, but the attack force is decimated by Harbinger, the oldest and most powerful of the Reapers. During the charge, John's squadmates are injured and evacuated. John continues the charge alone, but is severely wounded in a blast from Harbinger, barely making it to the beam. Once on the Citadel, John hears from Anderson, who also made it to the beam. Finding Anderson under the influence of the Illusive Man, John succeeds in stopping the Cerberus leader, but Anderson is fatally wounded in the process. After opening the Citadel arms so that the Crucible can dock, John is transported to the pinnacle of the Citadel where a childlike AI appears. The AI declares that it is the Catalyst, and the creator of the Reapers. It reveals that the Reaper cycle is an attempt to prevent organic life from destroying itself by creating synthetic life; creators, the Catalyst argues, are always doomed to be destroyed by the created. The Catalyst characterizes the harvest as an ascendance, wherein advanced organic races are preserved in Reaper form and the opportunity is created for more primitive species to rise, evolve, and advance. In every cycle, the Catalyst studies the evolution of these organic species as well as their technological progression with the ultimate goal of finding a solution to the conflict between synthetic and organic life. The Catalyst says that it has lost faith in the Reapers' ability to achieve this purpose and, as now altered by the Crucible, gives John three options of defeating them: control the Reapers, destroy the Reapers and all synthetic life, or synthesize all organic and synthetic life. In the end, Shepard jumps into the Crucible's energy beam, which absorbs and dissolves the Commander. Using the mass relays, the energy fired by the Crucible transforms all life in the galaxy into a new hybrid of synthetic-organic life. The Reapers depart Earth, and both the mass relays and the Citadel are damaged by the Crucible firing. The Reapers work together with everyone to rebuild the galaxy, including the mass relays, and share the knowledge of previously-harvested civilizations. John's Second Reconstruction But it's later reaveld that John survied and later married Liara and got two duaghters and adopted a son. 'Powers' Adrenaline Rush: John has the power for a brief moment to slow down time around him, giving John a small window to line up the perfect head-shot with the sniper rifle or other weapons, as well as increasing the damage dealt, including melee damage. 'Abilities' Soldiers: John is a pure combat specialists. No one is tougher or more effective at taking down enemies with gunfire. John has the most thorough weapons training and can use all special ammo types. John is outfitted with ocular synaptic processors that allows him to focus on targets with lethal accuracy. Master Strategist and Tactician: John has spent most of his life in the military and being the son of Clifford Shepard, he has developed exceptional leadership skills. Master Martial Artist: John has extraordinary hand-to-hand combat ability and is considered one of the greatest combatants on Earth and even in other worlds. John holds black belts in judo and aikido. Multi-lingual: Strength Level Weaknesses 'Appearance' 'Personality' Shepard has a gift for being a leader. Miranda Lawson draws attention to this, claiming that Shepard has "that fire that makes someone willing to follow you into hell itself". 'Equipment' Omni-Tool:'is a multipurpose diagnostic and manufacturing tools as well as computers used for a variety of civilian and battlefield tasks, such as hacking, decryption, or repair. Weapons '''Omni-Blade:'a disposable silicon-carbide weapon flash-forged by the tool's mini-fabricator. The transparent, nearly diamond-hard blade is created and suspended in a mass effect field safely away from John's skin. Warning lights illuminate the field so the searing-hot blade only burns what it is intended to: the opponent. '''M-76 Revenant: John's standard assault rifle. The M-76 Revenant unleashes a storm of high-velocity slugs. It has low accuracy but a high thermal clip capacity, and packs considerable firepower. This custom-made machine gun features technology not widely available. Protected against replication by sophisticated Fabrication Rights Management (FRM) technology, only the richest and most powerful warlords can afford the Revenant. M-11 Suppressor: John's standard heavy pistol. The M-11 Suppressor is the product of the Alliance's Offensive Handgun Project that developed an infiltration weapon to be used in close-quarters situations where silence is key. The Suppressor features a built-in integral sound moderator that reduces noise and muzzle flash. Civilian variants on the weapon are considered illegal but can be found in some sectors. N7 Hurricane: John's standard submachine gun. While some militaries pass on the Hurricane because of its lower accuracy, the Alliance feels the gun's rapid firing rate offers excellent suppressive fire. A disciplined marksman can use the fully automatic submachine gun to chew through targets with alarming speed. Alliance officers were so pleased with field results that the Hurricane is now many squadrons' standard-issue SMG. N7 Crusader: John's standard shotgun. Bruised and bloody Alliance marines on Torfan attributed their survival against waves of batarian mercenaries to the precision and stopping power of the Crusader. With a design patterned on riot shotguns, this weapon has a moderate rate of fire that rewards careful aiming. Since this accuracy provides little room for error, the Crusader is primarily used by highly trained soldiers. N7 Valiant: John's standard sniper rifle. The Valiant is a sniper rifle tested by Alliance soldiers during a series of harsh survival exercises on the planet Kruljaven. This streamlined weapon employs a sophisticated fire-control system that improves accuracy by stabilizing the barrel during targeting. Although this comes at the cost of reduced capacity and rate of fire, most soldiers find the increase in precision and quick reloading time a worthy tradeoff. 'Transportations' Normandy SR-2: SSV Normandy:Formely Category:Green Eyes Category:Auburn Hair Category:Humans Category:Dating Characters Category:Xavier family Category:Male Characters Category:Characters Category:Alternate Reality Characters Category:Earth-2837 Characters Category:Libra (sign) Category:Alliance Squad Members